Mirza-Hingis Win 25th doubles match in a row

Brisbane, Jan 8 (IANS) World No.1 women’s doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis won their 25th match in a row, beating Andreja Klepac and Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3, 7-5, at the Brisbane International on Friday.

The top seeds at the Premier-level tournament faced some resistance from the No.4 seeds, who jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and, after dropping the first set, were a game away from winning the second set up 5-4.

But the Indo-Swiss pair did all the right things at all the right times and closed out the match smartly.

“I think we’re off to a great start in the new season,” Hingis said after the match.

“We never really felt like we finished in 2015 – I played the Indian league and Sania played IPTL, so we still kind of kept our routine. We’re really happy to have the possibility to be in another final, and win another title.”

Hingis and Mirza’s 25-match winning streak, which has brought them five titles in a row at the US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Finals, is the longest winning streak since Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci’s 25 in a row in 2012.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve lost, but it’s never easy to start a new season, especially when you’re coming off such a great season. Everyone’s gunning for us – we’re the hunted,” Mirza commented.

“We’re just taking it one match at a time, staying positive, and picking up from where we left off.”

The doubles team of Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva rattled off 28 victories in a row way back to the 1994 season.

Mirza-Hingis won nine titles together last year including the Wimbledon and the US Open and ended the season as the top ranked team in the world.